Proving that you can’t keep a good bad girl down, Smallville alum Cassidy Freeman returns to The CW to bedevil another crazy-hot cast. “I guess they’re trying to tell me something,” says the former Tess Mercer with a laugh. “When I was cast on Smallville, I was like, ‘Really? Evil angry girl?’ Because I can’t stop laughing in real life.”

In the March 15 Vampire Diaries episode — a flashback to 1912 — Freeman plays Sage, a bloodsucker with ties to the Originals, as well as Ian Somerhalder’s Damon. “She [is] really aware of what being a vampire is and owns it,” says Freeman, who says it “has been a dream to play a vampire” and that she was “jumping for joy” when she got the part. Sage will also resurface in modern-day Mystic Falls with a murky agenda. “She comes back for good reasons, but she is [out] for herself.” – TV Guide